Kindergartners from Golden Charter Academy, a public TK-5 school in Southwest Fresno, California, advocate for and participate in milkweed restoration in critical monarch habitat, thanks to their teachers Taf Wilson and Melanie Smith. In this interview, you will hear Taf and Melanie talk about their monarch butterfly unit and the ways they engage their students with reading, writing, listening, and speaking while saving butterflies in a project that began with a published curriculum unit and is evolving into a city-wide movement.

Featured ELA Superheroes:

• Taf Wilson (she/her)
• Melanie Smith (she/her)

Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Greg teaches reading, writing, listening, and speaking to his 4th graders at Union Street Charter School, a public rural elementary school in Humboldt County, California. He simultaneously gets students outside and lets them get their hands dirty. His ongoing local land restoration unit, in partnership with a land trust and a native plant nursery, asks students to research native flora, use database evidence and expert advice to justify and present their choices for the most beneficial and appropriate native plants for the project, write a grant, and then complete the restoration project.

Featured ELA Superheroes:

• Greg Gaeira (he/him)

Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast showcases an interdisciplinary argumentative reading, writing, listening, and speaking unit that asks students to grapple with who should take responsibility for corporate environmental degradation, specifically in the “fast fashion” shoes and jeans industries. Students engage with various texts and use those texts to formulate verbal and written arguments about a high-interest topic. At the end of the unit, students create a social media reel ecological call-to-action using Canva.

Featured ELA Superheroes:

• Marivell Caba Arayasirikul (she/her)

Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This place-based, interdisciplinary high school climate justice speculative fiction writing unit asks students to bring in an imaginative lens to address environmental racism and the climate crisis. For this unit, August collaborates with a World History teacher to integrate various writing genres to help students civically and creatively engage with climate solutions.

Featured ELA Superheroes:

• August Freas (they/them)

Explore the episode and teacher resources: https://ca-eli.org/ela-superheroes/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.